ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to quash Mumbai attack accused Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi’s detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) on Friday led to a diplomatic spat between Pakistan and India with both countries summoning each other’s diplomats.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit was first summoned to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs where he was conveyed Delhi’s concerns over High Court’s decision to set Mumbai accused Lakhvi free.

Lakhvi has already been granted bail in the Mumbai attack case. He was currently being detained under the MPO, a law that the government has often used to detain people suspected of posing a threat or causing unrest, for a specified period after overriding standard legal procedures and due process of law.

Mr Basit was told that the Indian government expected Pakistan to take all legal measures to prevent Lakhvi’s release.

In response to Mr Basit’s summoning in Delhi, Indian deputy high commissioner was summoned to the Foreign Office to protest the hype being created by India over the IHC decision.

The Foreign Office, however, did not make a formal demarche.

While protesting India’s reaction over court orders, Director General (South Asia) Nafees Zakaria reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to take the Mumbai case to its logical conclusion, but reminded the Indian diplomat that legal process would take its own course.

The Indian reaction was viewed by the Foreign Office as “irrational” and “immature”, a source said.

The Indian diplomat was assured that IHC’s decision to cancel Lakhvi’s detention orders would not impact the Mumbai attack trial being conducted by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.

Both countries summon each other’s diplomats

The Indian deputy high commissioner was, however, reminded that delays in trial happened because India was not forthcoming in sharing evidence. Moreover, the defence lawyers of the seven accused being tried in Pakistan were not allowed to cross-examine the lone surviving attacker Ajmal Kasab, who was hanged in 2012.

The trial, Pakistani officials say, can be expedited only if India cooperates and shares credible evidence.

The lack of progress in the 2007 Samjhota Express case in which 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, died, was also pointed out to the Indian diplomat.

The main accused in the Samjhota case, Swami Aseemanand, has been granted bail by an Indian high court despite his confessional statement. Aseemanand had also revealed names of others involved in the attack.

Jawed Naqvi adds from New Delhi: “He (Lakhvi) may have been granted bail but as you know the trial continues, we are all working to complete the trial. Let the judicial process take its course,” The Hindu quoted Mr Basit as saying after a meeting at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

In response, The Hindu said, India told Pakistan that it was Islamabad’s responsibility to take legal measures to ensure he doesn’t come out of jail.

“The overwhelming evidence against Lakhvi has not been presented properly before court by Pakistani agencies,” The Hindu quoted Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, as saying.

He added that “there are no good terrorists or bad terrorists”.

Lakhvi, a top commander of the banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been in jail since 2009. He is one of seven people on trial in Pakistan over attacks in Mumbai in 2008 which claimed the lives of 166 people.

India has expressed concern over Pakistan’s inability to prosecute the culprits in spite of New Delhi submitting what it says is detailed evidence.

“This development comes just after the visit of the Indian Foreign Secretary to Pakistan as part of his ‘Saarc Yatra’ which helped resume the stalled dialogue process,” The Hindu recalled.

Malik Asad adds from Islamabad:

After the Islamabad High Court order, the government’s legal team said it was not finished with Lakhvi yet and according to sources it was reportedly planning to challenge the order.

But Islamabad’s Deputy Commissioner Capt Mushtaq when asked by Dawn whether Lakhvi would be freed said: “The court order will be implemented.”

The IHC had on Dec 29 suspended a detention order, but police picked him up again over his alleged role in the kidnapping of an Afghan national, which took place over six years ago.

The detention order was issued under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad granted Lakhvi a post-arrest bail on Dec 18 in the Mumbai attacks case. Since December, the government issued three consecutive detention orders on a monthly basis to keep him incarcerated.

IHC Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi, while deciding Lakhvi’s petition challenging the detention order, observed: “I have reached the conclusion that the impugned detention order issued by respondent No 2 (district magistrate) is capricious, mala fide and without legal foundation, therefore, same is hereby quashed (sic).”

Lakhvi’s counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi said the third detention order issued on Feb 13 was going to lapse on March 16.

When asked whether his client would be freed after the court order, he said: “The government seems to be in no mood to free him. Our job is confined to the court and to argue the case before the judge, which we have done and the court has quashed the detention order.”

He said that if the government didn’t implement the court’s order, “we will file a contempt or a habeas corpus petition for Lakhvi’s recovery from illegal detention”.

According to Mr Abbasi, IHC officials faxed the order to authorities of Adiala Jail, where Lakhvi is currently detained. The jail authorities were duty bound to release his client upon receiving the court’s order, he added.

However, the government’s lawyers said that they had not received a certified copy of Friday’s IHC order.

“After examining the order, we will decide whether it can be challenged in the IHC or the Supreme Court,” a senior federal government lawyer told Dawn.

“We can file an intra-court appeal in the IHC while the order may be challenged through a civil miscellaneous appeal before the Supreme Court,” he said, adding that the most likely course of action would be approaching the apex court.

In his order, IHC Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi said the government had registered the kidnapping case against Lakhvi in order to detain him after the court suspended the first detention order.

The order pointed out the case “was registered against present petitioner (Lakhvi) when the first detention order dated Dec 12, 2014, was suspended by this court… which positively infers that it was lodged with an intention to detain the petitioner”.

The court observed that the material produced by the prosecution against Lakhvi was not enough to justify his detention.

Citing an identical case relating to detention of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the judge held that the detention order issued by the federal government was liable to be quashed.

Published in Dawn March 14th , 2015

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